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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Topic Author's Original Post - Jan 24, 2013 - 09:52am PT
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So I recently did a major closet overhaul/re-org and I'm trying to decide what to do with a bunch of crap I'm sick of storing. I've got 2 categories I'm dealing with that are taking up too much space,
EB #1: Photographs (the easier problem): Dear 'ol Grandma passed a couple years ago leaving me with like 10 boxes of family photos dating back to the 1800's. There's only so much you can put in albums and space is limited.
EB #2: The bigger problem. Artwork.. lots of it. Kindergarten through college. Scanning larger stuff seems like a pain. I started just photographing it, but it's time-consuming and a PIA. Throwing away originals afterwards seems kinda dirty and wrong but who really wants my kid-art? Now that I'm a world renown stained glass artist this crap could be worth bucks when I croak BTW ;)
So any suggestions?
Are there scanning companies that can just mass-scan even the larger stuff?
With the photos I'm thinking mass-scan it all. Keep the really cool stuff and mail the rest of the originals off to my cousins and let them deal with it.
What to do with original artwork?
Auction it at Facelift? ;)
F*#k scanning it, burn it all and dance naked around the fire?
Please advise.
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rottingjohnny
Sport climber
mammoth lakes ca
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Jan 24, 2013 - 09:55am PT
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Photographs....? Any boob shots...?
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 24, 2013 - 09:58am PT
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Any boob shots...?
Well, there was that box of photos I found in the trunk of my dead cousin Butch's '69 Camaro (with "Scorpio" stenciled on the side BTW). But that's another story... boobs were the least of it.
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hootowl
Mountain climber
VA
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Jan 24, 2013 - 10:01am PT
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Don't throw away the photos from the 1800's! Somebody somewhere is writing a history book and needs those photos. If you can't scan and store, contact a local historical society, college, genealogy club, etc. and offer to donate. I'm telling you, if you throw these artifacts away you will regret it! Look at all the cool old photos continually posted here of days and people (and youth) gone by, that mean so much to everybody when they show up. I'm glad some people are photo-hoarders.
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Fish Finder
Social climber
THE BOTTOM OF MY HEART
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Jan 24, 2013 - 10:02am PT
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What do you think that your Gramma did with her Grammas photos?
its all in the past
Keep a few that will remind you where you started from and throw away the rest.
or go to a Best Buy and tape all the artwork to the Fridges and just walk away!
Everything will perish.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 24, 2013 - 10:06am PT
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The black and whites are the only ones I'll keep. Most of them will fit in one or two large albums and they have all the hand-written notes on the back from Grandma researching the family tree. I'd still like to scan them. There's a family-tree website for the Kansas branch of the family. I'm sure the local historians would love copies.
... in my copious free time of course.
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this just in
climber
north fork
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Jan 24, 2013 - 10:06am PT
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If you burn it and dance naked around the fire, be sure to record it. It becomes performance art, especially when you say, "this represents death and the return to the earth."
Good luck.
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Tony Bird
climber
Northridge, CA
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Jan 24, 2013 - 10:07am PT
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i've got the same problem, skip--one uncle was a serious artist, another a magazine photographer who left lots of pretty photos, their sister, my mother, painting canvasses right up to the end, my wife fast becoming a superproductive ceramicist but with a bit of a lead on market demand, daughter moving back home to go to--art school--and her boyfriend, also an artist, joining us down here to pursue what he hopes is better opportunity than the bay area. so our house has three small storage spaces you can't even turn around in. we had a yard sale awhileback, advertising pictures and frames on craigslist, figuring maybe a frame shop would show up and give us 20 bucks for a lot of good quality material. ha--we sold just about everything except art and frames.
it's a tug o' war between the heart and head. my mom was not a career-type artist, but she left us one masterpiece, the painting she painted of her mother. makes me feel like they're both with us, all day long, every day.
i lived with the artist uncle when i went to college in chicago. his apartment had little aisles to get around in as the stacks of sketchbooks, canvases and materials approached the ceiling. put your television out on the front lawn. if it rains, put a rope blanket over it.
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can't say
Social climber
Pasadena CA
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Jan 24, 2013 - 10:12am PT
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emotional baggage, everyone's got some.
Baggage on the other hand, clogs my garage.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 24, 2013 - 10:29am PT
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@ Locker:
It's primarily stuff on paper. Before I was a glass artist I wanted to be an illustrator. Pen and inks, watercolors. College art-school projects and some kindergarten art as well. Some of it certainly can get scanned and tossed, but some is nice enough someone might like to hang it up.
Gramma was a Bob-Ross-school painter BTW. I kept only 2 of her paintings (her best and her funniest) and the rest got donated to charity.
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Gunkie
Trad climber
East Coast US
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Jan 24, 2013 - 10:39am PT
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Can't you store old photographs between sheets of waxed paper with a very light weight pressing them onto a solid, level surface? And just make sure you store these stacks in moderate temp & humidity. Doing this with 10 boxes of photos will become your 2nd career. Maybe you just need to select the most important ones, in your opinion.
Good luck. In my case, once my dad kicks, I just plan to burn his place to the ground.
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Jaybro
Social climber
Wolf City, Wyoming
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Jan 24, 2013 - 10:42am PT
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Do your parents have a garage?
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frank wyman
Mountain climber
montana
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Jan 24, 2013 - 10:43am PT
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Hey...I'm from Kansas..any distant relatives from Czechoslovakia? Maybe near Bellville ?...Frank
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climbski2
Mountain climber
Anchorage AK, Reno NV
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Jan 24, 2013 - 11:02am PT
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For scanning print photos just about any scanner you pick up cheaply will do a good job on them. A little time consuming but no need to send them out to be done.
Slides are a different story however.
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micronut
Trad climber
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Jan 24, 2013 - 11:06am PT
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Keep it. Honestly. Photos of pieces of art are kinda lame when you look through em later, especially on a screen/monitor. Being able to hold something in your hand, years later, can be a true treasue. And think of the generations who will follow.
I recently opened an old trunk of my grandmother's. she is now 94. It was a joy holding things in my hand that were her inspiration nearly a hundred years ago.
Go to Home Depot. Get some big plastic lid boxes. And store some of the good stuff....storage can be affordable, or you might fing a friend with a basement or a garage.
Just my two cents.
Scott
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Spider Savage
Mountain climber
The shaggy fringe of Los Angeles
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Jan 24, 2013 - 11:09am PT
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It only gets worse as the decades go by. :-(
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happiegrrrl
Trad climber
www.climbaddictdesigns.com
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Jan 24, 2013 - 11:14am PT
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I lost my high school art after asking my sister to store in when I moved to NYC. When I came home within a year and wanted to get it, she had *lost it.*
I still miss that collection, even though I too have nowhere to store it now.
Family photographs - My father was a decent hobbyist, but took many images that documented our family in the younger days. My maternal grandfather was a very good hobbyist who had done the same, along with what I see now would have been poured over with zeal by local historians.
Same sister was asked to store those boxes from mom. Same damned end result... Now the only family pictures left are the ones I had swiped from those bins when I moved to NYC, and then ones I shot. I gave them to a DIFFERENT sister to be steward over a few years ago.
Point: DON'T throw away unless you have no other option. The local historical society donation is a great idea. As for your own art, that is a personal issue. I used to go through my stored pieces about once a year and was always happy in doing it. I was slightly devastated to learn they were lost. But maybe you have had plenty of time to go over and over, and so have internalized a lot, and tossing would not be so difficult.
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Lynne Leichtfuss
Sport climber
moving thru
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Jan 24, 2013 - 11:57am PT
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Everyone makes good points. You gotta go with what's best for you.
In the past 5 years I've had to whittle two housefulls of stuff down to one large room and a small shed I'm converting to a studio.
I was a "saver" but I must say that getting rid of all that stuff has make me a remarkably freer person from the inside out. Things can be like spider webs that stick to you.
Cheers Gal, miss you and Eric. lynne
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10b4me
Boulder climber
Somewhere on 395
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Jan 24, 2013 - 12:09pm PT
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Keep as many photos as possible. You will regret it if you don't. Trust me on that one.
In regards to the artwork, why not take pictures of it?.
Or auction it at Facelift
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bvb
Social climber
flagstaff arizona
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Jan 24, 2013 - 12:10pm PT
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Dear Mrs. E,
I know I'm a packrat, and I accept it. But as I long ago passed 50 and am crawling towards 60, I am SO GLAD I have a bunch of stuff -- the exact kind of stuff you are describing -- still around. My mom has been curating most of it. It's so much fun to read a note you wrote to the tooth fairy when you were 4 ("Dear, Tooth Fairy, my tooth fell out but I lost it so now I don't have it but can I have 25 cents anyway? Love, Bobby.") Apparently 25 cents was the going rate for a tooth in 1961.
If there is no big rush to toss stuff, then take your time. Because tossing it is an utterly irreversable decision. I already know that my kids want my old drawings and notes cards and scribbles and other autobigraphical ephemera, but that passing of the baton is still decades away. My Mom only hung on to the good stuff, so there's not too much to weed out. Don't you have an attic or crawlspace or some rafters where you can just stick the stuff and forget it?
My High School report cards just KILL my daughter. D's, C's, and F's with a couple of A+'s (English, Social Studies.) Of course I was climbing 5.11 by then so f*#k 'em!
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zBrown
Ice climber
chingadero de chula vista
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Jan 24, 2013 - 12:11pm PT
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have you asked Tony?
before you do, calculate the actual cubic feet of space this material occupies
re-arrange it so that it occupies less
then post the number here
don't ask locker
once the number is determined, then the solution will appear
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John M
climber
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Jan 24, 2013 - 12:16pm PT
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My 10 box theory.
Goal.. reduce to 4 boxes.
Take one box a week and go through it. Keep examples, but throw out the Majority with the goal of reducing to 4 boxes. Whatever the local museums want, give them.
Once you are down to 4 boxes, you start keeping again. When you get back to 10 boxes. you start the process again.
Or.. do like my uncle and keep everything. aaaack.. some cool stuff, but do I really need to see all 400 pieces of kindergarten art? Keep one or two and toss the rest. If some day they are worth money, well, thats the way it goes. It means you became famous and are probably dead so you wont benefit from it anyway. Are you really keeping stuff so that if you become famous someone else will have some piece of you? come on. Dump it.
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Social climber
SLO, Ca
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Jan 24, 2013 - 12:18pm PT
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I'm the opposite-- I have almost nothing from when I was a kid and our kids' stuff generally goes right in the trash once they move on to the next project. I hate boxes of stuff I don't use.
But anyway, there are companies that will scan stuff. You might try a legal documents service- they are used to dealing with large quantities (as opposed to something like kinkos) and may give you a deal if you tell them there is no rush.
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crunch
Social climber
CO
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Jan 24, 2013 - 12:32pm PT
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Keep it. Honestly. Photos of pieces of art are kinda lame when you look through em later, especially on a screen/monitor. Being able to hold something in your hand, years later, can be a true treasue. And think of the generations who will follow.
But it's good to have a record of what there is before you store it all in a box and (inevitably) forget.
A flatbed scanner and some time can help (Vuescan is good, basic scanning software with many options on size/quality of image etc, works with almost any scanner you can lay hands on etc).
For bulk scanning, scancafe is about the cheapest. They send originals to India, so it's slow (3 months or so) but they seem to do a good job of keeping track, not losing anything (My wife's scanned many hundreds of images, maybe ten separate batches, mostly sides, many old prints, too, not one image lost). I've started sending slides to them, too (I'm picky and don't always care for their color correction on old, faded, climbing slides, so go for their premium service, costs a bit more. Old family pics you should get fine results with the basic service.
Scancafe specializes in slides but also scan photos and negatives.
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Wade Icey
Trad climber
www.alohashirtrescue.com
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Jan 24, 2013 - 12:51pm PT
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lose the clothes
strike the match
dance
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matisse
climber
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Jan 24, 2013 - 12:59pm PT
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scan cafe will scan photos for you:
http://www.scancafe.com/
I'd keep the art or try to sell it. I have a big flat file that I bought off of craigs list that holds current projects, the art archives, and my watercolor paper.
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rectorsquid
climber
Lake Tahoe
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Jan 24, 2013 - 01:36pm PT
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Have you every looked at any of it in the last year or two? If yes then keep it. If no then do you plan on giving it to someone who will look at it once or twice? If yes then keep it. If no then will throwing it out give you more guilt than ignoring it? Because you ignore it as if it's not there and you should feel bad about that. It's important.
Really, it's just stuff. A lot of unused stuff makes you a hoarder. Use it or get rid of it.
Dave
P.S. I have no idea what they call someone with an excessive amount of stuff that all gets used. Maybe a workaholic or something worse.
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MisterE
Social climber
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Jan 24, 2013 - 03:36pm PT
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And think of the generations who will follow.
Micronut - there are none of these. We are both only children without children.
I'm in Rectorsquid's camp on this one for the most part; if you don't use it or look at it occasionally, then is is emotional baggage.
I did a purge a few years back, and my only regret was not scanning the pictures, YMMV.
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graniteclimber
Trad climber
The Illuminati -- S.P.E.C.T.R.E. Division
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Jan 24, 2013 - 03:41pm PT
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EB #1: Photographs (the easier problem): Dear 'ol Grandma passed a couple years ago leaving me with like 10 boxes of family photos dating back to the 1800's. There's only so much you can put in albums and space is limited.
EB #2: The bigger problem. Artwork.. lots of it. Kindergarten through college. Scanning larger stuff seems like a pain. I started just photographing it, but it's time-consuming and a PIA. Throwing away originals afterwards seems kinda dirty and wrong but who really wants my kid-art? Now that I'm a world renown stained glass artist this crap could be worth bucks when I croak BTW ;)
If you have attic, basement or garage space that you don't need for anything else, just keep it.
Whatever you throw out, photograph it first. Digital photos don't take any room to store.
Stuff that doesn't have any meaning to you know, might mean more to you some years from now.
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kev
climber
A pile of dirt.
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Jan 24, 2013 - 04:18pm PT
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JTM,
Not sure on the art, but for photos, if you don't mind throwing $ at the problem, you can get slides, negs, and prints scanned. Try scancafe.com
I'd still keep a few beat up old photos though...They've got more character.
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Clint Cummins
Trad climber
SF Bay area, CA
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Jan 24, 2013 - 04:48pm PT
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Scan the photos, including the backs with notes on who is who.
If they are like the ones at my mom's house, many are in frames and it will take some time to get them out, scan and back in.
Send copies to grandma's descendants on USB flash drives.
Keep a few, offer the rest to descendants, toss the remainder.
Your old artwork - photograph the highlights and hopefully you will get into a mood to toss most of it afterwards.
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jbaker
Trad climber
Redwood City, CA
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Jan 24, 2013 - 04:58pm PT
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Scancafe does a good job. You can probably also find local services. An inexpensive scanner does a good job on black and white prints.
To photograph the artwork, you'd want to mount the camera above a flat table, make sure the lens is really flat, and set up very even lighting. You'll probably be too close to get good results with on-camera lighting. With a little care, I've gotten good results photographing my sister's paintings for her (she wanted to make full-size prints). You could rent a good camera and lens from BorrowLenses.com, or someone similar, for a few days, plus some lights, and crank through it.
My house burned down last month, and we thought we'd lost all pre-digital photos. I was feeling very happy that I'd scanned a bunch of photos from my father's childhood and years in WWII and the Korean War, to share with family. We just discovered that my wife's photos of her ancestors hadn't been with the rest of the photos, and they survived. She'd been pretty upset about it. She hadn't looked at them in years, but she felt she'd lost one of her remaining ties with the past. I'd strongly urge you to scan any photos that mean a lot to you.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 24, 2013 - 08:29pm PT
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Well, food for thought. It's true.. once you toss it.. you can never get it back. I just don't need to keep every frikin' scrap of paper.
With the photos... A company like Scancafe sounds like the ticket. Thanks for the suggestion. I was sure there were probably companies out there that did that.
Like I said.. I had intended to keep some of the b&w and a few good pics of immediate relatives and probably pawn the rest off on the cousins. My mother informs me there are MORE pictures in albums at her house that will invariably end up at my house at some point BTW. Meh...
The artwork is harder. Whittle it down. Dedicate a weekend to photographing everything. (sounds excruciating). Keep some.
Maybe start mailing the really bad art to Super Topo members who misbehave as punishment or give it to Neebee to decoupage her new shed with.
PS I actually created a joke Etsy shop called "BuyMyEmotionalBagage" to sell off the antiques and vintage clothing. The shop got more hits and sales than my real shop LOL.
A la Tony... Everything but the artwork sold.
@John.. I'm being totally facetious about any value my crappy kid art might hold BTW.
@Frank pg 1.. the Kansas relatives.. German. Last name Fikan
@Dingus.. yup.. I've got a couple highway signs sitting in my garage as we speak. Want one? We can just spray paint "A1A" on it and you can pretend.
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froodish
Social climber
Portland, Oregon
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Jan 24, 2013 - 08:42pm PT
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For the photo scans you really care about, create an Amazon Web Services account and throw them in an S3 bucket (first year up to 5GB is free, stupid cheap after that) so that when the optical media the scan company sends back eventually goes bad you won't loose them.
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 24, 2013 - 08:52pm PT
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I'll check that out Frood. This is all new to me so I'm compiling ideas to work with.
Just had to share the only two Grandma paintings I kept. These were the only ones that seemed totally unique.. a break from the bowls of fruit and bad landscape paintings ...sorry Gramma.. they were really bad :(
With this one she won a contest to get your artwork on a greeting card:
and this one.. her only figural and piece de resistance...
wait for it.....
Victorian boudoir-Barbie on a chamber pot LOL
when I was a little kid I couldn't for the life of me figure out why that girl was sitting on giant eggs LOL.
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Jan
Mountain climber
Okinawa, Japan
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Jan 25, 2013 - 12:06am PT
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You are really lucky to have photos with notes on them. A distant cousin and I once spent one whole summer scanning, emailing, and trying to identify various old photographs that his grandmother had put in a box unlabeled. If you get them scanned now, you can always work on the scrapbooks (digital preferably) sometime in the future. You can also take some of the best ones and share them with the world on Find a Grave or Ancestry.com sites.
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Anastasia
climber
InLOVEwithAris.
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Jan 25, 2013 - 12:11am PT
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Scan whatever you throw away so there is always something left and yet way more portable and packable. You can even take pictures of your art, etc.
Hugs!
Oh and yes... I have my parents stuff and facing a similar fight. Sadly it's not just a closet full...
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Captain...or Skully
climber
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Jan 25, 2013 - 12:15am PT
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In the end, it's just stuff. The World is full of stuff.
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MisterE
Social climber
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Jan 25, 2013 - 12:25am PT
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The last two posts are very true.
The crux lies in the balance of preservation and sharing .vs letting go of the past.
Difficult boundaries, especially when personal and family issues come into play.
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neebee
Social climber
calif/texas
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Jan 25, 2013 - 12:48am PT
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hey there say, justthemaid...
i love the kid story, and the giant eggs, :)
childhood is sweet...
say, how about doing an art show,as a fundraiser somewhere,
though NOT a 'real artshow' but you know what i mean...
like at some local festivals, etc, and keep the prices, either low,
hidden, for whatever some will pay, for a good cause...
that way, the art just might sell.. an at least to folks that will like it...
*also,certain thrift stores, SAD TO SAY, not all:
will take the art and keep it on the shelves NO MATTER howlong, til it sells... THIS has to be the kinds that then do 'half off sales' to clear
thing out, without trashing it.. but--you are assured that no one will buy it unless they really DO love it...
but a smalll local art thing, sounds like fun...
also,instead of taking pics of everything...
could you not just make a film? a famiy movie, or something, showing all the art work, etc.. you could sit down quite often and never tire of reseeing it... a family ambience type thing, etc...
ps:
lasty, hate to see you do something and then wish you
had kept it, so as you are doing--proceed with care...
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skywalker
climber
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Jan 25, 2013 - 12:49am PT
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Doubt this is any help but reminds me of my uncle. When my grandparents passed there was a ton of stuff in the attic and ...well...the whole house. He kept some WWII stuff for sure; metals, rifle, and a helmet my grandfather wore that has a bullet hole through the forehead and out the back! Turned out the helmet was too big and he just got a few stitches on the top of his head!
A few token old photos (great grand parents, etc) the rest was kinda ditched. However, he has a really cool bar in his basement and has a ton of antiques he got to decorate it and he has the things kept scattered in different places and are real conversation pieces. You can't keep it all less you build paths through your house and garage. It sucks but I'm always trying to get rid of one item for every item I bring in.
It is just stuff but some stuff is worth keeping.
S...
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justthemaid
climber
Jim Henson's Basement
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Topic Author's Reply - Jan 25, 2013 - 01:19am PT
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Yeah.. I don't have the nerve to toss the whole kit and caboodle like Mr.E did. It's just finding a balance of what to keep and what to get rid of. It's nice to have reminders of the past around but I'm just past the stage where I'm comfortable being surrounded by huge piles of clutter.
Before I was a climber.. I went to the flea market every weekend for years... you folks should have seen the mother of all garage sales I had to make room for Mr.E. People kept asking me if it was a multi-family garage sale or if I had an antique store that went out of business.
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mouse from merced
Trad climber
The finger of fate, my friends, is fickle.
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Jan 25, 2013 - 02:16am PT
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Scanning larger stuff seems like a pain.--Skip
I could say snidish shite like "first world problem," but then the third world might say "Wish I had your problem, dildo!" We got to keep them in their place. They have no garageful of stuff. What do they know?
I got rid of stuff by the ton when Packrat Mama Liz passed away. Took me years to part with the bulk of it.
I have several boxes of slides from Boomer, my dad who recently passed. I am keeping or scanning the slides that interest me or have my friends and story on them first.
Next in priority are the photos of family. The Best Shots Only or the ONLY SHOTS of a person or activity of interest to the family at large, are what I am keeping.
I am totally ignoring the golfing legends shots, the friends we had in our RV park shots, the trailering shots, the Mexico shots, and the shots of the trip to Idaho, and so on. You need to be heartless, draw a line.
Art, that's a REAL PROBLEM. Someone took time to create it. If you appreciate art, save it. It will find its way to whom it is going.
Knickknacks from my mom's collection--only the ones which appeal to me.
Oh, don't be too careful, because it is just stuff. Please yourself, rule one in dealing with this kind of thing; who can use this is the next obvious question.
Arrowsmith. Emotion. Think to the future.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bl-OEMjvp_0
Or Aerosmith's version is actually better.
What would zBrown say?
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Anastasia
climber
InLOVEwithAris.
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Jan 25, 2013 - 02:56am PT
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I took pictures of old pictures of my relatives that my great aunt wouldn't part with even for a second to get scanned. It worked great. I just propped the camera between two chairs. I raised the photo album with a few books and wham! They are pretty descent.
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